mountains of Loma, in 9 deg. 15 min. west latitude, and had ascertained
its course for a short distance from its source. We were also aware of
the existence of one or two streams joining the great river, or
branching from it near Timbuctoo. De Lisle had marked a river Gambarra,
on his maps drawn up for Louis XV., and not without good authority. This
is the river coming from Houssa; and the Joliba of modern travellers is
a river, we could prove, from the concurring testimony of a variety of
sources, coming from the north-west, and joining its waters with, that
is to say flowing into the Niger, in the immediate neighbourhood of
Timbuctoo; still at that point the Kowarra, or Quorra of the Moors, or
Quolla of the Negroes, who always change the _r_ for _l_ a name which,
according to Laing, it has at its sources--according to Clapperton, it
preserves beyond Timbuctoo, and is probably still the name of the same
stream at its embouchure in the Bight of Biafra. The Quarrama is another
tributary stream which passes by Saccatoo, and falls into the Quorra
above Youri, and above the point where Mungo Park was wrecked; and the
line of country between this river and the Shashum, comprising the hills
of Doochee, of Naroo, and of Dull, is the line of water-shed to the
rivers joining the Quorra on the one hand, and those emptying themselves
into the Wangara on the other. The course given by Sultan Bello, and the
information obtained by Major Denham, both pointed out a river coursing
to the east, which is probably the branch followed by the Landers: for
its termination in Lake Tchad had not even the air of probability;
though it is not, on the other-hand, at all improbable that other
branches empty themselves into the Bight of Benin, by the rivers
Formosa or Volta, according to information given to Captain Clapperton
and Major Laing.

We had intended to embody some remarks upon the pretended journey of
Caillié; but we find we have already occupied too much space in details